Google started out as a simple search engine. Simple because its main page was minimalist. But not because it is simple in its operation, activated by algorithms that changed the way we search for things on the internet. Today, Google is much more than that. To start with, your array is called Alphabet. And it offers online services for millions of people, companies and public bodies. Online advertising, cloud computing, software, mobile and online applications, e-commerce, electronic devices… It is even a Internet provider. But not all Google projects have ended well. A recent example is Stadia. another was Project Loon. An internet provider through helium balloons.
In the United States, Google acts as an internet provider and television by IPTV under the name Google Fiber. It has been doing it since 2010 and has clients in cities such as Atlanta, Nashville, San Antonio, Kansas City or Orange County, California. And indirectly to cities as important as Chicago, Denver, Miami, Seattle, San Francisco or San Diego. Still not up to par AT&T,Verizon either Xfinity in terms of coverage or number of clients, but little by little it is making its way. An intelligent strategy if we take into account that practically all of Google’s business areas are based on the internet.
It is no coincidence, then, that in a distant 2011, Google decided to launch the loon project, Project Loon, in English. It had arisen precisely in Xeither GoogleX, the laboratory of ideas from which the future successes of Google should come. The more people who can access the internet, the more potential customers you will have. It would later be spun off as an independent company. And in 2021, the time has come and he gave up his attempt of bringing the internet with helium balloons.
Internet for everyone in balloons with helium
In January 2022, the world population was approximately 7.91 billion people. Of them, 4,950 million are Internet users, Internet users. That is, 62.5% of the total. There are countries that have 100% internet penetration, such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar or Liechtenstein. If we look at the most relevant countriesFor one reason or another, China has 54% of Internet users, the United States 87%, Russia 81%, Spain 86%, Mexico 80%, Argentina 74% and Chile 82%.
In summary. Until reaching 100% of the population worldwide, there is much to be done. And even more so if we take into account that there are countries where there is a wide deployment of fiber optics. Others in which the use of mobile technologies such as 4G and 5G predominates and, finally, there are areas of the planet that continue to depend on slow and poor quality connections. Hence the attempt by Google to offer a cheap and practical solution for bring internet to remote and rural areas at acceptable speeds.
Later projects like Starlink, are based on the satellite deployment specifically designed to provide coverage and internet access. And for the latest information we know about this project of Elon Musk, everything indicates that it is going quite well. But projects like Starlink, which has over 12,000 satellites in orbit around the Earth, they require a lot of investment.
Project Loon’s first flight: New Zealand
Project Loon (2011) which would later become a company with the name Loon LLC (2018), wanted to find a more economically viable alternative. And they bet on helium balloons. They would be placed at heights of between 18 and 25 kilometers, and together they would make possible a wireless network that would allow wireless connections at speeds similar to 3G networks. That in the beginning.
The first deployment of Loon it was two years after its creation as a project dependent on the laboratory of ideas or incubator by name X either GoogleX. In the summer of 2013, Google was going to deploy a first network of helium-inflated balloons. Large helium balloons. About 30 in all. The chosen place was Christchurch, in New Zealand. The balloons were powered by solar panels and were visible to the human eye. Once deployed, they formed a network that would supply about 50 peoplethe first participants in the project as customers in the testing phase.
According to various news outlets at the time, those responsible for Project Loon they planned to deploy a total of 300 or 400 balloons. Something that could seem expensive in terms of deployment and maintenance. But we’re talking about remote areas in which the deployment of fiber optics was really expensive. And that benefited a few people. If all went well, Project Loon he would continue his work in other countries such as Australia, South Africa or Argentina.
The Legacy of Project Loon
Almost nine years after putting the first balloons into flight loon projectat the beginning of 2021, its managers announced the end of project. On his official blog, hosted on the site of Xthe statement reviews Loon’s work in New Zealand and later in Puerto Rico, Peru and Kenya. He also tried his luck Brazil Y Sri Lanka. In the second case, in March 2016 it managed to be the second country in the world with coverage via LTEa technology that offers speeds higher than 4G without reaching the current 5G.
And at a technical level, balloon networks were perfected by connecting them to each other through a laser system. In a more recent article on the same blog, dated September 2021, the team that worked on Loon recalls that the project failed but that, along the way, it served to learn a lot about the stratosphere. In this sense, the data obtained with the sensors that the balloons incorporated were made public for anyone who wants to consult them. Scientists and researchers, mainly. Specifically, data obtained by more than 2,100 flights and covering the period of time between August 2011 and May 2021.
For another, anyone can check information related to the project through The Loon Librarya document of more than 400 pages which reviews at a technical level everything that involves the project: flight system, communications, software used and everything that was learned along the way.
A new hope on the horizon
The million dollar question is, what went wrong? The answer is simple. Project Loon had a laudable purpose. But doing good sometimes goes wrong because does not give economic benefits. The idea was to bring the internet to areas where deploying fiber optics or mobile antennas was too expensive. Expensive for areas where a small number of people lived. That is, the investment would never be amortized. Precisely, one of the first to benefit from Project Loona New Zealand farmer, paid astronomical amounts to have satellite internet.
So even though Loon continued to investigate and reduce the costs of deploying its balloons and other infrastructure on the ground, there was still an expense that was still prohibitive for the people who could benefit from it. Google could have financed the project with its millionaire profits, but at have no economic outlet viable, he decided to drop the idea. On the other hand, in some areas where he had deployed his balloons, 3G and 4G networks were already being installed, making Google’s aerial deployment unnecessary.
But not all is lost. If the closure of Loon It took place at the beginning of 2021, in September 2022, some media echoed the return of this project with another name: Aalyria. Its manager, the startup aalyria technologies, was founded in early 2022 by former Google employees. But although both projects are related, in reality they have little to do with each other. For starters, there are no balloons involved. And Google is not involved in the project. However, the goal is offer broadband internet using software that was used in the loon project to turn it into a cloud system that manages networks that connect satellites, planes or ships.